


Please don't go

by swallowthewhale



Series: Lemon Dreams [4]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 05:56:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11007381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swallowthewhale/pseuds/swallowthewhale
Summary: When Cisco dreams, he dreams of Caitlin.





	Please don't go

Cisco knows he’s just delirious. It’s the fever talking, the thick cotton in his head making him see things he only wishes were true.

“Cisco,” the fever says sadly, and rests cool hands on his forehead. She helps him pull his hair out of his face, brings him water, tucks the blankets more securely around him.

“You need to take better care of yourself,” the fever admonishes. He blinks dully up at her. “Who do I have to come home to if you’re not alive?”

That’s how he knows she’s a hallucination. The real Caitlin - not Caitlin anymore - doesn’t have a home. She said so herself.

He knows he’s feeling better when Iris grins up at him from his phone, the ringtone drilling into his skull. And when he answers, Iris is actually on the other end, concerned and kind. It’s harder to tell himself that it was just the fever when he leaves his bedroom and his eternally messy apartment is spotless, his fridge is stocked, and his movies arranged in alphabetical order. Cisco doesn’t tell Barry about fever-Caitlin, or his suddenly clean house. He doesn’t know if he wants to believe it was actually her or to tell himself that it was Barry.

The headaches come throbbing and frequent now. His dosage probably needs to be upped, but his doctor isn’t Caitlin anymore, and usually that hurts more than the migraine. The nights that he goes home, he lays flat on his back in his bed, with the blinds drawn tight to keep out the street lights, and tries to sleep.

He dreams about her a lot, but he knows they’re not vibes because she’s there in his room, her hair brushing his arm as she leans over him. Sometimes dream-Caitlin slips a needle into his arm and the banging in his head subsides, sometimes she just slides icy hands over his forehead and around the back of his neck. Caitlin was never this physical, either. She liked to keep her distance. It’s only in his dreams that Caitlin touches him like this.

“Please don’t go,” he’ll beg, and she’ll just smile and brush his hair out of his face.

“Not this time,” she’ll usually say, and when Cisco wakes up, there’s always a clean apartment in the dream’s wake.


End file.
